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E46 M3, ISC N1 coilover install and review thread, bought from Bimmerworld

84K views 116 replies 20 participants last post by  Romeo Alpha 
#1 · (Edited)
Install review of ISC N1 coilovers for E46 M3

Track review and some video in post 8

I wanted to do a review of both the install and the set up now that I've had a few days to drive on them and got an alignment. I had 145,000 miles on my oem shocks and have been doing increasingly frequent track days and am getting to a point where I can tell the factory shocks are limiting my development and don't want one to blow out in a corner resulting in stuffing my car. The decision came down to Bilstein HD or these. These won due to the added benefits of adjustments and ride height control. Disclaimer: I'm not including what size ratchets you need or lb/tq for spec because I didn't write it all down and should be obvious for sizing tools and torque specs are out there. Nor is this write up the end all or be all of how to install this system.

First of all, here's where you get the system: http://store.bimmerworld.com/isc-n1-coilover-suspension-package-p1835.aspx currently on sale for $949.99 what a deal!

Second, while the system is very in-expensive and entry level, there's a reason Bimmerworld sells them and that as of now 3 of the shop employees have them on their cars. It's tremendous value and includes the camber plates and rear shock mounts. I sprung for the rear shock adjustor extension as well.

Here is what you get when UPS drops off the box at your front door.

The front shocks come pre-assembled so you don't have to worry about assembling them, everything you see is straight out of the box. It includes the tools to adjust ride height and 4 allen wrenches to adjust the shocks on top too. The rear shocks are 2 piece as you see the shock body and bottom where it bolts to the spindle screw together as I'll go over in the install. And it includes the sway bar linkage.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
First (obviously) get the car in the air on jack stands, the higher the better to make your life easier, a lift would be ideal but since you have to get into the trunk area for the rear shock mounts tall jack stands are a great middle ground. Remove wheels.

A tip for the front shocks is to set the ride height using the gold rings to be equal on both. For example we got the top spindle to a point where we could finger tighten if needed against the spring, as in the spring wasn’t being compressed very much, set smaller spindle below that, and then had the one below that that’s against the shock body 6 threads down. Then after the car is set, you have an equal set to start working on measurements with.

Up front, you will disconnect the sway bar linkage from the sway bar, no need to disconnect it from the shock body to take the shock out. Take off the sway bar in the engine bay, take the bar off the mounts first, then take the nuts off the strut mount, as you’ll need to install them back individually to make life easy at the end. Then take out bottom shock clamp bolt (my vernacular) so the shock is now disconnected from the car. We ended up taking off the brakeline from the body as well as not to put strain on the s/s lines I have, the brake system only leaked minimal fluid since the system still had vacuum and we bled it before completing the job. We put the line back on as soon as possible to keep as much fluid in the system too. I took off the caliper clip and set it on my wheel so we wouldn’t forget to do the bleed, otherwise the first test ride we took might have been the last!

We compressed the spring using a mobile vice as seen so the shock would clear the fender now that the brake line was undone and the abs line was loose from it’s mount as well. We did use some pry-bar power because I wasn’t concerned about a scratch or scrape, but if you want to get the shock out with none of that feel free to take the front control arm off and anything else that is part of the assembly it’s mounted in, we just cheated a little bit. Once the shock was rotated out of the wheel well but still in the clamp, using the pry-bar to provide some help spreading the clamp, I twisted the oem shock/spring assembly out, work it out slow, no need to put stress on your FCAB and beware you may put some pressure on the bottom of your fender.
 

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#3 · (Edited)
Which if you still have a factory FCAB, I recommend you upgrade to either the Powerflex poly http://store.bimmerworld.com/powerflex-e46-3-seriesz4-control-arm-bushing-p281.aspx or what I’m running which is the Treehouse solid delrin piece http://store.bimmerworld.com/treehouse-racing-eyeball-control-arm-brackets-p516.aspx They made such a great difference, it was a new car when I changed out the FCAB for the Treehouse from Bimmerworld.

With the oem shock out, it was easy to mount the ISC front assembly in the clamp, * note that the flat side of the sway bar mount on the shock faced the engine bay and the concave side faced out (otherwise you have the wrong front shock on the wrong side, yes there are sides!). Also the bottom of the shock will not go to the bottom of the shock clamp, there will be some space left. You don’t need to get it further than this down, it’s made to sit in the mount up to the flare in the ISC shock body, other suspension systems are like this as well. You also want to get the top of the camber plate up in the strut tower with the adjustment lines as such, or pointing towards the center of the car towards the outer corner of the front of the car. We used the jack to slowly position the top of the ISC assembly up into the strut tower in the engine bay. We got both shocks up and loosely mounted, not tightened down in the engine bay before connecting the sway bar linkage on the bottom to the sway bar. You never want to set the sway bar under load as in on the ground with one wheel not jacked up in the air. Once we had both front shocks in their clamps, up loosely in the strut tower mounts, and with the sway bar linkage attached to the ISC shock body, we raised up the shock using the jack on the spindle and set the top nuts on the bolts thru the strut tower brace. We elected to use the oem nuts up top rather than what came with the kit because they’re self centering. I’ll get to setting ride height later.
 

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#117 ·
Which if you still have a factory FCAB, I recommend you upgrade to either the Powerflex poly BMW Control Arm Bushings | BimmerWorld or what I’m running which is the Treehouse solid delrin piece BMW Engine Performance | BimmerWorld They made such a great difference, it was a new car when I changed out the FCAB for the Treehouse from Bimmerworld.

With the oem shock out, it was easy to mount the ISC front assembly in the clamp, * note that the flat side of the sway bar mount on the shock faced the engine bay and the concave side faced out (otherwise you have the wrong front shock on the wrong side, yes there are sides!). Also the bottom of the shock will not go to the bottom of the shock clamp, there will be some space left. You don’t need to get it further than this down, it’s made to sit in the mount up to the flare in the ISC shock body, other suspension systems are like this as well. You also want to get the top of the camber plate up in the strut tower with the adjustment lines as such, or pointing towards the center of the car towards the outer corner of the front of the car. We used the jack to slowly position the top of the ISC assembly up into the strut tower in the engine bay. We got both shocks up and loosely mounted, not tightened down in the engine bay before connecting the sway bar linkage on the bottom to the sway bar. You never want to set the sway bar under load as in on the ground with one wheel not jacked up in the air. Once we had both front shocks in their clamps, up loosely in the strut tower mounts, and with the sway bar linkage attached to the ISC shock body, we raised up the shock using the jack on the spindle and set the top nuts on the bolts thru the strut tower brace. We elected to use the oem nuts up top rather than what came with the kit because they’re self centering. I’ll get to setting ride height later.
First (obviously) get the car in the air on jack stands, the higher the better to make your life easier, a lift would be ideal but since you have to get into the trunk area for the rear shock mounts tall jack stands are a great middle ground. Remove wheels.

A tip for the front shocks is to set the ride height using the gold rings to be equal on both. For example we got the top spindle to a point where we could finger tighten if needed against the spring, as in the spring wasn’t being compressed very much, set smaller spindle below that, and then had the one below that that’s against the shock body 6 threads down. Then after the car is set, you have an equal set to start working on measurements with.

Up front, you will disconnect the sway bar linkage from the sway bar, no need to disconnect it from the shock body to take the shock out. Take off the sway bar in the engine bay, take the bar off the mounts first, then take the nuts off the strut mount, as you’ll need to install them back individually to make life easy at the end. Then take out bottom shock clamp bolt (my vernacular) so the shock is now disconnected from the car. We ended up taking off the brakeline from the body as well as not to put strain on the s/s lines I have, the brake system only leaked minimal fluid since the system still had vacuum and we bled it before completing the job. We put the line back on as soon as possible to keep as much fluid in the system too. I took off the caliper clip and set it on my wheel so we wouldn’t forget to do the bleed, otherwise the first test ride we took might have been the last!

We compressed the spring using a mobile vice as seen so the shock would clear the fender now that the brake line was undone and the abs line was loose from it’s mount as well. We did use some pry-bar power because I wasn’t concerned about a scratch or scrape, but if you want to get the shock out with none of that feel free to take the front control arm off and anything else that is part of the assembly it’s mounted in, we just cheated a little bit. Once the shock was rotated out of the wheel well but still in the clamp, using the pry-bar to provide some help spreading the clamp, I twisted the oem shock/spring assembly out, work it out slow, no need to put stress on your FCAB and beware you may put some pressure on the bottom of your fender.
Excellent information! I just purchased ISC N1 for my E46 325i. Can't wait to install. You were very helpful. Thank you!
 
#4 ·
Now, onto the rear install. If you haven’t gotten to the rear shock mounts in the trunk before, it’s a bit of work getting all the interior tabs and clips undone without braking them. I’ve had my trunk bare for years so I’m quite a few steps ahead of where you’ll be with full trunk interior.

Anyway, once you have access to the rear shock mounts go ahead and take the nuts off. Then remove the bolt thru the bottom of the shock, I don’t think it matters which order you do it in, although doing the top first allows you not to have the shock drop on you if you already took the bottom out. Getting the spring out isn’t hard at all, the trailing arm has enough travel downward without putting stress on the brake line to wiggle the spring out, so just put pressure with your foot on the rotor of hub to pull it down and you should be able to get the spring out no problem.

Here’s a side by side of the springs. The ISC should have the adjustor body on the bottom, logically, because you can’t access the top of the spring when it’s up in the mount. For setting the spring ride height for the rear, it’s up to you on how low or high you want it. I started with 6 threads visible between the bottom and top ring as pictured. We might have tweaked the left rear in the adjusting phase but we didn’t have to adjust it much. The driver’s side ending up being perfect in the rear with those 6 threads showing. Here’s the side by side of the shocks, notice how beefy the top of the ISC mount is even compared the Bimmerworld Reinforced Shock Mounts, which I have for sale btw, any want to PM me an offer? Of course not you want the N1's now!

So the rear shock body as previously referenced is two pieces. We started with just a centimeter of threading, went to 2 inches, and finally settled with an inch and a half as how far up to thread the bottom piece. Trial and Error led us to that 1.5” of threading so save yourself some time and start with that! Mount the bottom of the shock first and use the jack to lift the hub assembly and the shock up into the top mount. With the shock mounted and the spring in place, continue using the jack to get the trailing arm as high as the travel will allow (simulating car going over a really big bump/curb or maximum compression at the track. What you want to make sure is the top of the shock body still having at least 1.5” or so of the rod showing, you’ll have to lift the dust cover to confirm. You don’t want the shock bottoming out of travel which is the purpose of that exercise. You also don’t want it too tall and riding on the shock not the spring controlling the ride height, this the 1.5” threading on at the bottom seemed to be the magic number.
 

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#6 · (Edited)
Stop! Don’t forget to torque all the bolts to spec. A best practice is using a gold paint pen and marking over the bolt once torqued. That not only confirms you torqued it but allows for quick assessment in the future to see if the bolt has loosened at all.

Now that you’ve gotten the front and rear systems installed and the front brakes bled, it’s time to set the ride height. Put the wheels back on, 3 bolts or lugs will do as you’ll probably be taking the wheels off again very shortly. Lower the car off the jack stands or down from the lift onto the ground. To settle everything we opened both doors and stood on the car and bounced up and down, then rolled the car a few feet forward and a few backwards. Now we got the tape measure and checked where the height was using the top crack in the side skirt. Since it gets wider in the rear that will be a higher height fyi, you’re not going for equal front and rear. We had Jamie from Bimmerworld measure James Clay’s street M3 to get a ballpark idea where we wanted to be, even though he’s using a different suspension, it’s baseline for determining ride height. After checking the corners were pretty close to where we wanted in the rear, an 1/8 inch off, and had to change the front 3/8 inch to get lined up so fortunately we only adjusted two corners. We learned that one full rotation of the gold circle that you use the tool on (lacking vocab at the moment) changes ride height about 1/8th of an inch, that allowed us to dial in pretty quickly. The end result for the ride height pictured was Front top of side skirt: 9 and 9/16 inches high and the Rear top of side skirt 10 and ¾ inches high as shown on the yellow pad. Go ahead and put the strut brace back on at this point if you have the oem or you may have already put an aftermarket bar back on earlier.
 

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#7 ·
As far as a review of the ride quality, here’s what I’m doing.

I started by determining how many adjustments you can make, the answer is 25 going by the side of the hexagonal top with the S---H on top of it because it makes four complete rotations plus 1/6th, i.e. 25: 1/6ths can be adjusted. I went full stiff and dialed it back 5 turns for 80% stiff and drove a day on that. Then did 5 more turns towards soft for 60% stiff, today ran 40%, and will do 20% and full soft as well. The difference between 80 and 60% wasn’t noticeable, however the 60 to 40% drop has significantly made the ride softer over bumps. To be honest it was harsh and jumpy on uneven streets and bridge joints. It was fantastic on level pavement and I can immediately tell it puts the power down better than my oem set up.

There’s a nice set of 270 degree on and exit ramps that makes for a clover pattern near my house, the highway is 55mph and the street is 45mph and the turning radius allows me to be doing the speed limit while pulling some cornering force and use incline to compress the suspension some to feel it out, that’s all the street performance review I’ve done and will do as I’m very anti-street racing and have a track day coming up on May 26th that I’ll give an in depth performance review after that. On worn out 135k oem shocks I ran 2:18’s at VIR last Feb and on 144k oem shocks I ran 1:51’s at CMP this April, we’ll see how these go!

Two weeks from now I'll have a VIR track review on Hankook S-R3's with Porterfield S4 pads. I'll update the tread at that point. So far I've very pleased with the change.
 
#8 · (Edited)
TRACK REVIEW!!!

Track review time! So I was with the SVT Superfest weekend at VIR on full course. The weather was great and because it was a 3 day event (I only went for Sunday) there was plenty of rubber on the track, grip was wonderful.

My tire set up was 245/40/18 front 265/35/18 rear Hankook R-S3's. I've had them for a year and a half and have probably 6 track days on them before this. I don't know how heat cycles work on street tires, but I'd ran my best 3 laps the first time I used them, 3 2:18's, (18.9, 18.7, 18.5) in a row. Spoiler alert, I pretty much ran the same yesterday, but with far greater control and consistency. My 3rd session I ran 2:18.6, 2:19.1, 2:18.9, 2:19.6, 2:19.7. My 4th session I ran 2:19.7, 2:18.9, 2:19.1, 2:18.6.

Here's the 4th session at speed
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZHpbsQO2QE

I have an AIM Solo I borrowed for data with gps times that I'll update once my friend is back in town to upload and analyze, the times I just put are grabbed from the video in movie-maker.

I started out FL 29psi FR 30psi RL 30psi RR 31psi which is my usual formula to be 37psi square hot.

So not knowing about single adjustable suspension systems, I boldly set out for my first session with the shocks 100% stiff up front and 80% stiff in the rear. Bad call. I had turn-in understeer everywhere and pushed thru the corners. Also, every brake zone was like a box of chocolates, the rear end was super twitchy. I pitted twice in that session to bleed the tires down and dialed back the stiffness by 20% on both the front and rear and went back out 60%f/40%r, then again 40%f/20%r. While the understeer improved modestly with each change, the brake zones were still terrifying. I think my best lap in that first session was a 2:26 and it was a scary, loose, sloppy, and frustrating 26. I couldn't get any rotation for turn 3, it was terrible.

After that session I consulted my good buddy and accomplished club racing national champion Jason Crist. We went over where the car was doing what and where and decided to go full soft up front and 20% stiff in the rear. I also added 2psi to the front tires. The suspension settings worked well in the brake zones and the additional psi cut the oversteer. The second session out I turned a 2:21 but my tire pressures were really high by the end.

3rd session, now that I was comfortable in the car and a lot of the drivers in my group had packed up after a long weekend, I was able to really focus on being smooth, raising my vision and learning this suspension under compression. These shocks performed very well. The grip was consistent and the feedback was excellent. It inspired confidence in the upper esses like I hadn't had before, I'm really looking forward to the Solo data to see what I was running thru there. I'd never attempted going flat up the esses on factory shocks (particularly with 145k miles on them) but with the ISC N1 set up relatively dialed in, I was entering at higher and higher speeds each lap building up my momentum and learning the shocks as I compressed them back and forth with the car's weight distribution.

At the end of the 3rd session I had a great turn 3, I came in and the braking started some rotation that I managed with throttle steering, it was fast and a ton of fun. I'd never have been able to do that with the oem shocks and body roll. The ISC setup really let me keep my vision up, this setup eliminates anxiety and was very consistent.
Here's an 11 sec clip of that rotation in turn 3


www.youtube.com/watch?v=15GFUu5vCjA

4th session was awesome but short, due to a vette needing a pull earlier in the day that pushed all the sessions back, it was only 17 minutes from pit-out to checkered flag. So I only got 5 complete laps and the first one had some traffic as the video showed. I came off the track and my tires were perfect FL 37.5 FR 37.5 LR 37 RR 37.

The fact that I could screw up the handling and then dial it back in with these shocks are pretty impressive for the adjustments. Since I had the ratio correct using the full soft up front and slightly stiffer rear, I didn't want to start over-tinkering. I'm sure there are different settings to get more grip and more stability, but that will have to wait for the next track day/weekend.

My summary of the ISC N1 coilover system is it's very, very worth every penny. It is a great track set up, it has more potential than I have dialed in yet, but even if I got lucky and picked the best possible settings for my car, it was still worth the drop and the handling increase. Be patient with the break in period on the street. Be patient with tuning it to your car's set up, unless your car is identical to mine, don't expect my settings to be perfect for you. As a track enthusiast, I stand behind my experience and knowledge of car control and understanding at least how VIR should have a car drive around it, even if I'm not perfect at it yet- but this suspension performed better than expected and was extremely enjoyable to drive. I look forward to getting some club racers into my car for their feedback in the future to see what they think too.
 
#9 ·
Oh and here's the look after the lowering we did with the set up
 

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#19 ·
What I've found so far is 80% and 60% stiff felt the same from a ride quality or harshness. dropping to 40% made a softer noticable difference. I'm 20% and 0% stiff felt the same too. I'm now playing with 0% in the rear and 20% up front to dial in handling for the street but I'll have much more on that after the track.
 
#16 ·
They should have the two parallel adjustment runners facing in and forward on the front part of the car and out and backward towards the center of the car on the back part, if that makes sense. So it's at a diagonal allowing for both caster and camber, as my understanding of it is. It's sort of hard to tell in the photo, but after consulting Bimmerworld, that's the way we installed it. Because of the bolts in the top plate and the only three combinations you can install them, this was how we went.

Higher end kits are going to have more comprehensive and clear cut camber plates obviously.
 
#17 ·
Sounds like you're saying the slots angled so that you gain caster and camber as you move them in. That's pretty unusual. Usually it's camber only, with higher end plates having separate camber and caster adjustments.
Most Caster is still good. Give you more dynamic camber as you corner, at the expense of increased steering effort.

However, the image looks like the slots are perpendicular to the strut bar, which suggests it's caster only adjustment. Slots also appear to be parallel to a line between the 2 outer bolts.
I think if you rotated it counter clockwise one hole, then the slots would be aiming in (from the front outer bolt to the inner bolt), so that you mostly get more camber, with some extra caster. Maybe it's a bad angle on the image though...
Cheers.

You're sure they sent you the right plates?
 
#18 ·
Sounds like you're saying the slots angled so that you gain caster and camber as you move them in. That's pretty unusual. Usually it's camber only, with higher end plates having separate camber and caster adjustments.
Most Caster is still good. Give you more dynamic camber as you corner, at the expense of increased steering effort.

However, the image looks like the slots are perpendicular to the strut bar, which suggests it's caster only adjustment. Slots also appear to be parallel to a line between the 2 outer bolts.
I think if you rotated it counter clockwise one hole, then the slots would be aiming in (from the front outer bolt to the inner bolt), so that you mostly get more camber, with some extra caster. Maybe it's a bad angle on the image though...
Cheers.

You're sure they sent you the right plates?
My understanding is your summary is correct. I'll upload another picture this evening showing the angle more clearly. I haven't attempted to use the plates to adjust camber or caster yet so there may be a more efficient angle to set it, my alignment shop was able to get it where I was ok with it without using the plate.

I'm pretty sure they sent the right plates as they came pre-assembled.
 
#22 ·
Around town and highway review

I wanted to give a street review now that I've been on the suspension for a few weeks. I've noticed the "harshness" of bad potholes and bridge joints that aren't even with the road have softened some as I've been able to put over a thousand miles on the system. Which by the way, if you're a civil engineer, and the best you can do is get a bridge to meet the road an inch and half higher than the road, you suck!!!

So don't be thrown by some initial bad bumps, it does get better.

I've also been getting record gas mileage. On an all highway tank I averaged 26.88mpg and on a city tank with 90 miles of highway I got 20mpg. I've never observed fuel economy as good as this, maybe lowering it improved aerodynamics and thus fuel economy?

I haven't played around with the shock adjustments much yet, I've ran all the settings in 20% incrimints and you can definitely tell a difference dropping from 60% stiff down to 40% stiff and from 40% down to 0%. I've been getting some understeer on exit ramps that I play around on because you can go the speed limit but corner pretty hard when there's no traffic, I've adjusted the front shocks 20% stiffer than the rears and that's helped, but I haven't really set the time aside to figure it out completely. That's what I'll do at VIR this Sunday.

So the track review should be posted next week along with some video if I can lay down some clean laps amidst SVT Superfest. The last time I checked there's 6 Corvettes, another BMW, a 350Z, and 111 Mustangs lol. I ran with some of them in January at a TCUSA event, should be lots of fun!

I also have the Bimmerworld intake boot going on Saturday http://store.bimmerworld.com/bimmerworld-silicone-throttle-body-boot---e46-m3-p924.aspx it's my first "motor mod."

And my Hankook R-S3's are now mounted on the Bimmerworld edition Apex Arc-8 in 18x9.5 et35 all around. http://store.bimmerworld.com/apex-arc-8-bimmerworld-exclusive-wheels-p1901.aspx I have 245/40/18 up front and 265/35/18 in the rear, in the future when I go thru these I'll run 265 square. I'm also putting on the wheel stud kit http://store.bimmerworld.com/bimmerworld-wheel-stud-package-p1350.aspx I take my wheels off and on so much now between brake bleeds, brake pad and rotor swap for the track, and now a dedicated set of track wheels, it's about time!
 
#23 ·
Track review and video in post 8!
 
#25 ·
I don't think I took any before install. You're referring to the rubber piece on top of the shock body right? I should have the wheels off soon to take my track pads/rotors off so I'll take a pic and up load it.
 
#26 ·
I also realized I didn't upload pics of the strut tower and how the camber plates angle.

And here's the alignment before and after, we didn't use the camber plates at all.

And a pic of the Bimmerworld intake boot, just to give you first timers a tip that wasn't given to me, you will probably need to trim the smaller end that meets the air box. Mine was too long out of the box, made me go insane trying to fit that before the trimming.
 

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#27 ·
Here's the BW Apex Arc-8 in 18x9.5 ET35 with my Hankook's on the car and then after the track day. The brake dust literally just wipes off. I sprayed them with water but it didn't really do anything, so I just took a towel and hit every corner and they are brand new again. The coating is awesome!!!
 

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#28 ·
So I finally got around to reviewing data this afternoon with my buddy as we waited for the Canadian F1 race to start.

My 4th session times were 2:22 behind the 5.0, then 2:18.9, 2:19.1, 2:18.8, 2:18.6 chasing the Leguna Seca 302.

What's encouraging but also discouraging is that the Solo DL had a hypothetical best combined lap of all the sections of a 2:17.54. Encouraging that I could be running over a full second faster, discouraging that my consistency was outside of that full second faster.

Continuing the street review, the shocks keep getting softer from a ride quality sense. My wife even commented yesterday that the car seemed much softer than directly after install, so once again: Don't be thrown by the initial harshness of the setup, it WILL MELLOW!

My next plot is to get my car in the hands of Jason Crist, James Clay, or Mike Skeen for some REAL data acquisition.

I'll keep everyone posted of any ongoing developments, as of now I don't have any scheduled track days this summer (hopefully that might change) so I'll keep updating street quality for everyone interested in these as a DD alternative to lowering springs and Koni's.
 
#30 ·
So I ended up buying this kit too. Looking forward to installing it.

It came nicely packages double cardboard boxes, then bubble wrap.
I think I have everything I need.
Looks like Bimmerworld also threw in some German gummy bears. Yum!

Here's some pics I took of the "unboxing".
 

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#31 · (Edited)
So I ended up buying this kit too. Looking forward to installing it.

It came nicely packages double cardboard boxes, then bubble wrap.
I think I have everything I need.
Looks like Bimmerworld also threw in some German gummy bears. Yum!

Here's some pics I took of the "unboxing".
I agree that the packaging from Bimmerworld was above reproach with mine too. Glad to see you selected this system to start with. PM me with any questions and I'll be happy to give you my phone number in-case you have any live install questions.

I got those too, You have to appreciate James Clay's humor: The way I figure it being a financial advisor myself, is Bears attack down, just like parts from Bimmerworld help you attack to get lower lap times!
 
#34 ·
If you are talking about the front shocks, take the bottom ring all the way down and have the top two 6 threads up, use the picture on the first page as a reference.
 
#35 ·
OK, I currently have it set 2 inches from the bottom of the shock, which is way too high.
Currently my ride height is 14" in the front and 13" in the rear, measured from the center of the wheel hub to the fender. I'm going to lower it, not sure what I should be aiming for just yet.
Are you able to measure yours from the hub to fender?

One thing I did differently was to reuse the rear spring pads, as suggested in other threads. This should help to isolate some noise, but you'll have to lower the adjuster to account for the extra height.

You can also see I set the camber plates in the what I think they should be, with the grooves pointing towards the outer front corner of the car (which will gain you camber and caster when moved in), whereas yours are pointing towards the middle of the front of the car (which will gain camber and lose caster, or vise versa).

I also mangled my sound insulation on the rear wheel well when I tried to pull it back. It's super brittle, so don't try that. Instead, just make a hole above the shock mount.
 

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#37 ·
Make some adjustments.
Front/rear are now 12.5" wheel hub to fender. I think this is a bit too low for my tastes. I'm going to raise the front to 13".
The front feels good. Camber is probably 2.5 to 3 degrees. I may reduce it a bit to 2.5 if it's much more than that.

I currently have the front at 6 clicks from soft and the rear at 4 clicks. So that's about 19% front and 12.5% rear. I started at 0% front/rear and this is better, but I'm still playing around with it.

One issue I have is that the rear clunks on road imperfections. I'm not exactly sure if it's fully compressing, or fully extending the shock, or maybe it's the spring?
I don't think I had this before I lowered it, so that suggests that it's fully compressing. I'm going to try shortening the shock body.
 

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#38 ·
Here's a few pics of my camber plates, set to max camber/cast by moving the inner bolts to the middle hole of the plate.
 

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#39 ·
Sorry I hadn't been on in a while. Do you still want measurements? if so could you take a picture of what you mean and how you are measuring? I used the seam where the side skirt meets the body at the wheel well so I want to make sure I give you an apples to apples.

The camber plates look correct.

I got some clunking initially too, I think it's just the shocks breaking in because I don't have any now. Or you have the shock body too short and it's bottoming out of travel under compression. Did you jack up the rear hub to it's maximum height to make sure there was still an inch and a half of shaft to the rubber stop? That's what we did to make sure we'd never fully compress the shocks. Shoot me a PM so I get an alert on my phone if you have any time sensitive questions, I don't want to miss something by simply not checking the thread if you need help.
 
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